Buying a diamond... er, comic book? Remember the 4 Cs! 0

[valiantman]

Seems like we might be able to borrow from the diamond monopoly scam marketing scheme for teaching potential buyers about "the 4 Cs" of diamonds, cut, color, clarity, and carat, so that they can better understand the 5th C, cost.

For comic books, we could teach using "the 4 Cs" - contents, cover, common, condition, so that they can better understand the 5th C, cost.

Example:

Amazing Fantasy #15's 4 Cs:

Contents - The first appearance of Spider-man including the origin story

Cover - An iconic image which has been homaged for decades

Common - Always available online, but not every comic shop has one

Condition - The key factor between a $1,000 copy and a $1,000,000 copy

[justafan]

Been a while since I've seen a $1000 copy. 

Common  - abundantly available but highly sought after.

 

[valiantman]

4 hours ago, justafan said:

Been a while since I've seen a $1000 copy. 

Common  - abundantly available but highly sought after.

 

True on the $1,000 thing... but there are incomplete/restored copies in poor condition which might still be "overpriced" if the buyer doesn't realize the centerfold is missing or that the cover is a reproduction.

"Abundantly available" isn't necessarily true.  Even if 10,000 copies of Amazing Fantasy #15 exist... that wouldn't be enough for 10,001 collectors.  Spider-man has millions of fans and has sold hundreds of millions (or billions) of comic books.  The first appearance isn't "abundantly available" compared to the number of other Spider-man comics or the number of fans... and it's only a small fraction of whichever Spider-man comic came out last month (and every month).

Edited August 2, 2017 by valiantman

[justafan]

17 hours ago, valiantman said:

True on the $1,000 thing... but there are incomplete/restored copies in poor condition which might still be "overpriced" if the buyer doesn't realize the centerfold is missing or that the cover is a reproduction.

"Abundantly available" isn't necessarily true.  Even if 10,000 copies of Amazing Fantasy #15 exist... that wouldn't be enough for 10,001 collectors.  Spider-man has millions of fans and has sold hundreds of millions (or billions) of comic books.  The first appearance isn't "abundantly available" compared to the number of other Spider-man comics or the number of fans... and it's only a small fraction of whichever Spider-man comic came out last month (and every month).

My thing with the abundantly available has more to do with the ability to locate and buy one at market prices.  SDCC had no less than 7-8 copies for sale not including the ComicLink/Heritage copies on display but many were still there Sunday before I left.  HeroesCon had a few on Saturday of that show.  Awesome con had several in low grade but didn't check to see if they were still there on Sunday.  ebay has at least 30+ copies in varying certified grades of 1.5 or higher (assuming they are legit listings).  

I agree that AF15 is not as abundantly available as many other issues of ASM.  The demand is there but so are the copies.  It's just that demand for the grade at market prices is not equal to the overall demand.  Millions of fans may want an AF15 but not/can't at current market prices or there would be zero left for sale.  But an AF15 in grade does seem to trade hands very frequently. At least 15 copies have completed sales on ebay over the last 30 days with 11 in July alone (assuming those are legit). Many more may trade hands offline at various "market prices".  So you see, they are abundantly available as compared to other rarer harder to find issues that rarely come up for sale as often.  

Perhaps we disagree in terms of semantics.  To me uncommon would be something that you don't see for sale very often due to extreme value and scarcity like an AC1 or sheer scarcity where less than 20 copies exist.  I've seen less of those for sale at shows or online than AF15's.  You can find an AF15 for sale at any major show.  You can't say the same for the more scarce books out there.  If I wanted to spend the money I could buy an AF 15 today.  I can't say the same about some other books.  mind you scarce doesn't always equate to value.

But I do fancy your 4-5 C's of comic buying/investing as a means of discerning value to an individual.

[jcjames]

Cool idea!

And  since Condition is so important, there could also be the "7 Cs" of Condition:

Corners,

Creases (including spine),

Colors (including PQ),

Cuts (including tears & cutouts),

Crinkles (wrinkles, waves, dents, bends),

Crud (dirt, stains, writing),

Cover (wrap, centering, resto, etc.)

 

Or maybe that's pushing it too hard?

 

[KryptoMayor]

8 minutes ago, jcjames said:

Cool idea!

And  since Condition is so important, there could also be the "7 Cs" of Condition:

Corners,

Creases (including spine),

Colors (including PQ),

Cuts (including tears & cutouts),

Crinkles (wrinkles, waves, dents, bends),

Crud (dirt, stains, writing),

Cover (wrap, centering, resto, etc.)

 

Or maybe that's pushing it too hard?

 

 That's a lot of C's and all I understand is Comics are Complicated. 

[valiantman]

59 minutes ago, justafan said:

My thing with the abundantly available has more to do with the ability to locate and buy one at market prices.  SDCC had no less than 7-8 copies for sale not including the ComicLink/Heritage copies on display but many were still there Sunday before I left.  HeroesCon had a few on Saturday of that show.  Awesome con had several in low grade but didn't check to see if they were still there on Sunday.  ebay has at least 30+ copies in varying certified grades of 1.5 or higher (assuming they are legit listings).  

I agree that AF15 is not as abundantly available as many other issues of ASM.  The demand is there but so are the copies.  It's just that demand for the grade at market prices is not equal to the overall demand.  Millions of fans may want an AF15 but not/can't at current market prices or there would be zero left for sale.  But an AF15 in grade does seem to trade hands very frequently. At least 15 copies have completed sales on ebay over the last 30 days with 11 in July alone (assuming those are legit). Many more may trade hands offline at various "market prices".  So you see, they are abundantly available as compared to other rarer harder to find issues that rarely come up for sale as often.  

Perhaps we disagree in terms of semantics.  To me uncommon would be something that you don't see for sale very often due to extreme value and scarcity like an AC1 or sheer scarcity where less than 20 copies exist.  I've seen less of those for sale at shows or online than AF15's.  You can find an AF15 for sale at any major show.  You can't say the same for the more scarce books out there.  If I wanted to spend the money I could buy an AF 15 today.  I can't say the same about some other books.  mind you scarce doesn't always equate to value.

But I do fancy your 4-5 C's of comic buying/investing as a means of discerning value to an individual.

I think we are in agreement, since my original statement for "how common is Amazing Fantasy #15?" was: "Always available online, but not every comic shop has one"

To me, that's a match to your description that there were several at SDCC, but not every dealer table had one... and that are are 30 on ebay (always available online).

However, I think your description: "abundantly available but highly sought after" is equally true for books like Amazing Spider-man #252, #300, and #361.

I agree that we're probably just disagreeing on semantics.

[jcjames]

1 hour ago, KryptoMayor said:

 That's a lot of C's and all I understand is Comics are Complicated. 

 

I concur completely and concede your conclusion.

 

[lou_fine]

8 hours ago, valiantman said:

I think we are in agreement, since my original statement for "how common is Amazing Fantasy #15?" was: "Always available online, but not every comic shop has one"

This is way too broad of a statement for whether a book is common or not since almost every single back issue that is more than a few years old would most likely be absent from many comic shop bins. 

Especially when a large number of comic shops don't really even carry collectible back issues anymore.